CQ Communications, Inc.

Wednesday, January 16, 2019

As this is written in mid-January, the federal government
is partially shut down due to a funding dispute between the President and Congress.
The FCC is among the agencies affected. We hope that, by the time you read
this, an agreement has been reached to reopen all federal agencies. However,
the impact on hams will likely extend beyond the shutdown. Here's a snapshot of
how the shutdown affected government agencies and services typically used by
hams, including any expected post-shutdown effects.

Federal Communications Commission

The FCC shut down all but essential functions (such as spectrum
auctions) as of January 3. The Universal Licensing System (ULS) and Electronic
Comment Filing System (ECFS) websites continued to be accessible; however,
there was no staff support behind them. Amateur license processing was shut
down, including new licenses, upgrades, vanity call requests, renewals and
administrative changes (such as a change of address). There will be a backlog
in all of these functions once the government reopens, so hams filing license-related
applications can expect processing delays. If similar situations in the past
are used for guidance, licenses due to expire during the shutdown period will
remain valid as long as a renewal application has been filed in a timely
manner. All other applications will be processed in the order received once the
staff is back at work. Deadlines on comments or reply comments on open
rulemaking proceedings will likely be extended bv the number of days during
which the FCC was shut down (although we are not aware of any amateur-related
proceedings currently in comment or reply-comment periods).

Notice
posted on the FCC's Universal Licensing System (ULS) web page:

Lapse in Government Funding

Effective: January 3, 2019 2:00 pm

System: Universal Licensing System
(ULS)

Due to a lapse in funding, the
operations of the Federal Communications Commission will be limited with no
system support. We regret any inconvenience.

NOAA/Space Weather Prediction Center

The Department of Commerce was also affected by the
shutdown. Its many agencies include the National Oceanic and Atmospheric
Administration (NOAA), the umbrella agency for the National Weather Service and
the Space Weather Prediction Center (SWPC). The National Weather Service and
its Storm Prediction Center remained operational because they are essential to
protection of life and property (even though workers were not being paid during
the shutdown). The SWPC web page also said it was remaining open, but not all data was available.

National Institute of Standards and Technology / WWV

The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) is
also part of the Commerce Department and was similarly affected by the
shutdown. Radio stations WWV and WWVH remained on the air, but the WWV web page
had no current information available. (Sidenote: To the best of our
knowledge, the future status of WWV, WWVB and WWVH remains uncertain. The Commerce
Department eliminated their funding in its latest budget request, but as far as
we know, Congress has not taken final action on the department's budget.)

NASA

All NASA operations were shut down except for those necessary
to maintain safety aboard the International Space Station. It is
unclear at this point how amateur satellites scheduled for launch aboard NASA rockets
will be affected. If a launch is part of an ISS resupply mission, it will
presumably move ahead on schedule. Other launches may be delayed as a result of
the shutdown. Check the status pages for individual satellites for updates.

The Federal
Communications Commission once again has five members, with the Senate
confirmation

Brendan Carr was confirmed bythe Senate to a full term as anFCC Commissioner, along with Geoffrey Starks (FCC photo)

of Brendan Carr for a full five-year term (he'd been filling a
vacated seat since 2017) and of Geoffrey Starks, who is replacing former
Commissioner Mignon Clyburn. They join Chairman Ajit Pai and fellow
Commissioners Michael O'Rielly and Jessica Rosenworcel.

Starks moves up
from a staff position as Assistant Chief of the Enforcement Bureau. The Senate
also confirmed Kelvin Droegemeier as director of the White House office of
Science and Technology Policy. (Tnx K3ZJ)

At press time in
mid-January, the FCC remained essentially closed due to the partial shutdown of
the federal government.

The ARRL has
filed a petition for rulemaking with the FCC requesting the inclusion of
provisions of the Amateur Radio Parity Act in its rules for the Amateur Radio
Service. The bill is intended to protect the rights of amateurs to put up
antennas and operate from homes that are covered by restrictive covenants or
homeowner association rules, many of which prohibit outdoor antennas and/or any
amateur radio operation. The Parity Act bill was passed by the House of
Representatives but not by the Senate, and died at the end of the 2017-18
session of Congress.

According to the ARRL Letter, the specific proposal is to
add a new rule prohibiting the enactment or enforcement of any private land use
restriction that fails to permit amateur radio operation, fails to permit
installation of an effective outdoor antenna or does not meet the "minimum
practicable restriction" standard that already applies to state and local
laws and ordinances. The final language of the Parity Act bill - which the
League wants incorporated into the FCC rules - was controversial because some
antenna law experts felt it might cause more harm than good, requiring all
amateurs living with private land use restrictions to request permission to put
up any antenna, including those not currently required to do so.

The FCC had not
taken any action on the petition prior to the federal government shutdown in
early January.

About Me

Published monthly since 1945, CQ is today the world's leading independent amateur radio magazine, now available in both print and digital editions. We focus on interesting people and practical projects, plus we sponsor a wide array of contests and award programs. These include the very challenging Worked All Zones (WAZ) and USA-Counties (USA-CA) awards and the world's most popular ham radio contests, the CQ World Wide DX Contest and the CQ WPX Contest. Subscriptions are available online through our website, www.cq-amateur-radio.com.